BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
As we have discussed before, someone – and I tried to find the source of the quote, but couldn’t – said that “four years ago Barack Obama was on a crusade; this year he’s in a campaign.”
Obama won the crusade, but Mitt Romney will win this campaign.
I know…I know. The polls are close. The national polls are tied; the state polls tilt toward Barack Obama. Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
The first debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney changed the direction of the campaign. In the two-plus weeks since that debate Obama’s lead in national polls and nearly every battleground state poll has shrunk or Romney has pulled ahead.
The second debate, which most observers believe Obama won on style points, has had no effect on the race whatsoever.
At least so far. Continue reading
BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com
Naomi Wolf must have called Barack Obama and given her two cents about how the President could seem more macho in debate number 2. He certainly was channeling his inner Al-Gore at the beginning of the “Thriller on Long Island,” when he moved aggressively into Mitt Romney’s personal space.
Romney followed suit, and at a few points, you thought that maybe something bad was going to happen. It never did, but this debate showed the personal animosity that the President has for his opponent.
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
Short answer: Obama rebounded strongly in this debate. Romney was prepared and did as well as he did in the first one, but Obama’s performance was so much better than last time, he gets the win.
Mitt Romney got the first question (from a college student asking about the availability of a job after he graduates). He walked over to “Jeremy” and spoke directly to him. Barack Obama also walked to the student and used the answer to attack Romney on wanting to “bankrupt Detroit.”
Candy Crowley busted the rules right off the bat by asking a follow-up question – what about short-term jobs – which both men used as an excuse to get on each other. Continue reading
BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com
The Vice Presidential debates are usually meaningless. The one last night was more meaningless than most meaningless Vice Presidential debates.
The most famous debate put-down in history came when Lloyd Bentsen tore into Dan Quayle, who, let’s face it, was no Jack Kennedy. Quayle looked like a fool, but his playing partner still won the election.
The highest-rated Vice Presidential debate had can-I-call-you Joe Biden and Sarah Palin. Palin exceeded all expectations and won the debate on style points, but that had no measurable effect on the trajectory of John McCain’s ultimate defeat. Continue reading
BY GARY JOHNSON
Reprinted from Loose Change (TCBMag.com)
There are certain things about human beings that are shared, validating the old joke about what the Zen master said to the hot dog vendor: “Make me one with everything.” Universally we all share sexuality, eating, loving, spirituality, even bad gas. I defy you to name any among us who hasn’t experienced a bit of the bubbly in the lower trunk.
Hang on to that feeling for a moment.
When it comes to the economy, how do we spell R-E-L-I-E-F? Romney and Obama have their plans, but God knows which is better or worse. Bottom line: This economic gas requires that something’s got to give. Continue reading
BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from Telemachus.com
We were somewhat amused by President Obama and his political consultant David Axelrod ‘accusing’ Mitt Romney of ‘exploding the deficit’ with his ‘$5 trillion tax plan!’
Well, they should know, shouldn’t they? President Obama and his Administration have broken the world records for the accumulation of debt over the past 4 years. They are veritable experts at ‘exploding the deficit!’
President Obama and David Axelrod accusing Mitt Romney of ‘exploding the deficit’ is like Chicago mobster Al Capone ‘accusing’ squeaky-clean G-man Eliot Ness of illegally running bootlegged liquor during Prohibition. Continue reading
BY WILLIAM I. GREENER III
The first presidential debate Wednesday, Oct. 3 confounded the narrative of the mainstream media that Mitt Romney was a dead man walking and that President Obama was on his way to a significant victory. It rendered that view obsolete, at best.
Never mind that the most recent surveys already had indicated the race had tightened back to something pretty close to a dead heat. In the world where the media and the liberal chattering class reside, only a nitwit could pretend that Mitt Romney stood a chance to prevail. Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
The pundiferous universe was acting as if the laws of political physics had been repealed as it tried to make sense of Barack Obama’s abysmal performance in his debate with Mitt Romney Wednesday night.
Why didn’t Obama respond? Why didn’t Obama mention the 47 percent? Or Bain Capital. Or that dog-on-the-roof-of-the-car thing?
Why, at a minimum, didn’t Obama challenge Romney on the facts? Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
As you are no doubt aware, Monday’s schedule for the Republican National Convention in Tampa was cancelled due to fears of Tropical Storm Isaac becoming Hurricane Isaac, and Hurricane Isaac taking dead aim at Tampa.
Even if you hadn’t heard this on the radio or on your local news, you knew it when you tuned in to watch convention activities and were greeted by the cable news channels’ equivalent of “Rain Out Theater.” Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
The selection of Rep. Paul Ryan to be Gov. Mitt Romney’s running mate was an excellent choice.
Nevertheless, the press corps happily bought into the Obama campaign’s early response that, as the Washington Post’s Dan Balz wrote: “There was no one on Romney’s short list of contenders they wanted to run against more than the chairman of the House Budget Committee.”
The great thing about that statement is: It would have worked no matter whom Romney had picked. In this age of everything anyone has ever said or even thought about anything being available instantaneously on-line, there is no such thing as a candidate that can’t be savaged in a 30 second ad by one SuperPAC or another. Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
August in Your Nation’s Capital slows to a crawl. The Congress is gone – which is good news for the Republic. In normal years the President and Vice President head for some shore somewhere.
Well, George W. didn’t. He headed for Crawford, Texas which meant the national press corps got to hang out in Waco for weeks at a time. Compare and contrast that with going to Martha’s Vineyard for a Presidential vacation and you can see why political reporters tend to be Democrats. Continue reading
BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com
One thing we know for certain is that the British can’t handle the truth, especially coming from an American.
Mitt Romney repeated what has been widely reported in the news, even to folks who haven’t been paying much attention, and you would think he said that Queen Elizabeth wears Army boots.
We will see how this Olympics turns out.
Private security couldn’t handle the security, so David Cameron had to mobilize his troops to provide back-up. There were questions if the Immigration Service was going to go on strike.
And let’s face it. London is very crowded and very expensive and pretty broke.
Romney didn’t sugar-coat things. And that caused quite a stir amongst the British tabloids. Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
From Cleveland, Ohio
Midwestern Legislative Conference
Donna Brazile and I did our very popular “He said; She said” act in Cleveland for legislators from the Midwest. We will take the act somewhat further on the road next week when we reprise it in Edmonton, Alberta for the Western Legislative Conference.
The buzz among the political cognoscenti is how much damage the Romney campaign has suffered from the attacks on his time at Bain Capital. The problem is, there is no evidence – thus far – that the attacks have had any effect. Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
We did this a couple of months ago, and I decided, as we are now within four months of election day, to take another look at the polling numbers of former Presidents in their first terms.
As of Sunday afternoon, President Obama’s job approval, according to Gallup, was 46%. His disapproval was also 46%. In the past half-century only George W. Bush has won re-election with an approval score of under 50%.
Let’s go to the chart.
Here’s the list of Presidential approval ratings at approximately the same point in their first terms going back to Lyndon Johnson: Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
It is tempting, but not entirely accurate, to say “Obama Loses!” after Democrats suffered another embarrassing defeat last night when the effort to recall Wisconsin’s Republican Governor Scott Walker failed by the surprisingly wide margin of 55 percent to 44 percent for the Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. An independent got about one percent of the vote.
As of this writing, with 76 percent of Wisconsin’s precincts reporting, it’s over. Walker wins. Much of the Political Punditry Class has been touting this as a preview of the 2012 Presidential election, but now that the Republican won, don’t expect to hear too much of that kind of talk.
In fact, the ink was barely dry on the headlines when the word went forth that it was actually a good night for Obama because the exit polling showed Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney 51-45. This is being spun by the Obama team as a victory even though Obama won Wisconsin by a 56-42 margin over John McCain in 2008.
An exit poll showing the incumbent President just barely over 50 percent does not a victory make, seems to me. Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
From Great Barrington, MA
Now that we’re deep into the general election campaign – about 72 hours into it – let’s review the rules.
No matter how many times you’ve hear it, it bears repeating that an election for President in the United States are not a national event. It is a collection of 51 separate elections. The number of electoral votes each state gets equals the number of Members of the U.S. House of Representatives plus its two Senators. Thus California gets 55 electoral votes (53 Congressional Districts plus two Senators) while Wyoming (a single Member state) gets three.
The District of Columbia, although it has one non-voting Delegate to the House and no Senators, by virtue of the 23rd Amendment gets three electoral votes which is why there are 535 voting Members of the House and Senate but 538 electoral votes. One half of 538 is 269. Thus, the magic number to be able to take the Oath of Office on January 20, 2013 is 270 – half of the electoral votes plus one.
I took your valuable time to remind you of all that because as you listen to geniuses like me on TV and radio for the next seven months talk about how many women are voting for Obama; how many men are voting for Romney; how many religious conservatives and how many college students will actually turn out to vote you should keep all that in mind. Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
From Des Moines, Iowa
At long last, real voters cast real votes on behalf of real candidates. One down, 49 to go and that doesn’t include American Somoa, Guam, the District of Columbia and other U.S. holdings.
You already know what happened last night: Gov. Mitt Romney and Sen. Rick Santorum essentially tied for first with 25 percent apiece. Rep. Ron Paul faded to third with about 2 percent. Speaker Newt Gingrich preserved a semblance of a win by beating out Gov. Rick Perry about 13 percent to 10 percent with Rep. Michele Bachmann coming in sixth with about five percent of the votes.
The Santorum story here – and it’s a good story – is, months and months of hard work and long road trips finally paid off. After Conservatives in Iowa kicked the tires of the four other candidates: Bachmann, Perry, Cain and Gingrich; they decided to take a look at Santorum and decided he was as good as they were likely to get and they made their choice pretty clear. Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
The Des Moines Register released its poll of how Republicans in Iowa see the GOP candidates running for President.
The top line numbers are:
Herman Cain – 23%
Mitt Romney – 22%
Ron Paul – 12%
Michelle Bachmann – 8%
Newt Gingrich – 7%
Rick Perry – 7%
Rick Santorum – 5%
Jon Huntsman – 1%
The surprise to me was not that Herman Cain and Mitt Romney are at the top of the layer cake; it is that Rick Perry’s campaign has fallen so far, and so fast. In the run up to the Straw Poll in Ames, Iowa (which, you remember, was won by Michele Bachmann) Rick Perry announced he would announce, but he was a write-in for the actual tally. He got 4.3% of the votes cast and those of us who think about these things wondered how well he would have done had he paid the entry fee and had his name on the ballot. Continue reading
BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com
This debate was actually watchable. I’m not certain if it was because Anderson Cooper was such a good marshal, because the candidates have now done 274 debates, or both, but it was fun to watch.
As you saw, the first 30 minutes (or so) were all about Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 tax plan. As I Tweeted, if this were a straw poll, then Cain lost because the other six candidates didn’t think 9-9-9 was so swell.
The next 20 minutes was Romney and ObamaCare.
Rick Santorum, attempting to get noticed, kept interrupting Romney and drew boos from the audience. Continue reading